I still have the hard cover copy of
Back to Eden which I purchased in
1969. Thus began my study of natural medicine and a Wholistic way of life. That
study continues to the present.

Today as a Wholistic Health Educator Consultant and Somatic Therapist, I
continue my quest for safe and natural remedies to maintain or regain health
in our stressful, hectic, and often polluted environment.

In the past 33 years I have read hundreds of books, attended numerous
seminars, attained many certifications, and earned an M.A. In the
process I have helped myself and countless others, raised a healthy child,
and tended to all our animals drug-free.

I began my formal study and practice of yoga in 1971 with Surat Shabd yoga.
It is a meditative yoga of mystic transport requiring more flexibility and
discipline than I possessed at that time. Realizing my need for the
benefits of Hatha
yoga, I undertook that study and practice as well. I completed my
first teacher training in 1978 and received my certification in 1979.

1971 was also the year I was first introduced to Polarity Therapy.
I was instantly drawn to this deep well of physical and metaphysical
knowledge.

Polarity therapy is a wholistically oriented system incorporating
hands-on energy balancing, body work, yoga, diet and nutrition, and
lifestyle change. The intention of Polarity Therapy, as a therapeutic
art, is to re-establish balance and harmony within the individual's
physical, mental, emotional and spiritual continuum. The effects of
thought patterns and the ability to direct our thoughts to create health and
harmony is also a fundamental element of Polarity Therapy. "The view
of health and wholeness implicit in Polarity Therapy encompasses continual
self-development and growing self-knowledge as absolutely crucial
requirements both for the patient and for the practitioner."

I was very fortunate to study with Dr. Randolf Stone in 1973. Stone
was the originator of Polarity Therapy which he developed over his long
career in the practice of drugless therapies. Dr. Stone was a
remarkable being, years ahead of his time. He rediscovered, under the
guidance of his spiritual teacher, the energetic cause of pain, suffering
and disease. He was the first, in our time, to integrate the physical,
mental, emotional, and spiritual components of our being into a complete
healing system. He held degrees in Chiropractic,
Osteopathy, Naprapathy, auturopathy. Also incorporated in his work,
one will find the influence of Zone Therapy, Reflexology, Yoga, Acupuncture
and, most abundantly, Ayurveda. Cranial Sacral Therapy (although no
one had yet used that term) is also imbedded in the practice of Polarity
Therapy. Yet all of these degrees reflect neither his lifetime of study of
the great teachings and teachers of the world, nor his inspired perception.
Dr. Stone saw man's physical body as the epitome of the universe, his mind
as a spark of the universal mind, and his soul as a spark of the Supreme
Being.

Surat Shabd Yoga and Polarity Therapy have become the foundation of my
life and my life's work. Everything I have studied since that time has
broadened and deepened my understanding of these sister sciences. All
have furthered my ability to further incorporate these systems into my life.
Surat Shabd yoga is the study of the soul as it interacts with the mind and
manifests in the physical body. And it is a meditation practice with
profound impact. Polarity Therapy offers an in-depth study of the
physical/metaphysical relationship and practical tools to maintain, create
or rebuild health.

Another Somatic System I spent years studying, and continue to practice,
is Ortho Bionomy™, eventually studying with the founder Dr. Arthur Pauls, a
British Osteopath. After many years as a martial arts instructor, Dr.
Pauls went to Osteopathic school where he learned manipulations for
correcting misalignments. He felt these manipulations were too harsh
for the body and knew there had to be a more gentle approach. He
subsequently studied the work of another doctor named Jones who had
accidentally discovered the power of positioning. Arthur, through
insight and inner guidance, combined with his vast knowledge and experience
created the art of Ortho Bionomy which continues to be an ever growing
healing art around the word. Ortho Bionomy is a very gentle and very
powerful system of positional release. Understanding the concepts, one
is able to dissolve pain. Suppressed emotions, which are also a cause of pain, are
often released leaving one feeling a sense of ease and well-being.

In the field of nutrition, in addition to the my own independent study
and my Polarity training, I studied a system called Healthology. I was
fortunate, in this system as well, to study with the originator, Dr. Robert
Preston.

Healthology is another natural healing art. With Healthology the focus is
building health naturally through proper nutrition. Dr Preston is in
nutrition, as Dr. Stone was with Polarity, on the cutting edge of awareness.
Much of what I learned in the 70's, I have
seen come to mainstream awareness in the 90's and much of it is yet to be
broadly utilized. Healthology is a system of building health which is
very different from Dis-ease care. From Doctor Preston I received a
wonderful foundation and understanding of the use of nutrition as a healing
art.

I continue with my independent study to this day and use my Healthology
training as the foundation of my own health skills and nutrition class which
I call, Taking Responsibility for My Own Health. I also studied
academic nutrition as part of my undergraduate work.

My study of Herbs continues as it will for the rest of my life. Along the
way, I had the good fortune to study with a Native American woman, Harvest McKampbell. She learned first from her grandmother the wise ways of
the native people of this continent. I learned also of the horrors
impacted on these people in an attempt to exterminate them as their lands
were confiscated. It is a great good fortune that the few who survived
were able to preserve and bring forward some of their vast knowledge to the
benefit of those of us interested in living in harmony with our
surroundings. I feel I am a far better and vastly richer person
because of the time spent with and the knowledge gained from Harvest, as
well as a more accomplished herbalist.

I completed my Master Herbalist certification with Dr. William Horash, a
wonderful old-time herbalist who also learned the art and science at a young
age from others who had spent their lives studying and practicing herbology
as a way of life. It is really important, as Harvest used to point out
to us, that one learn about an herb from one who uses the herb.
Nothing can replace the wisdom use, practice, observation, and feedback.
We are so much more than a body of nerve impulses and chemical reactions.

Dr. William Horash is also a master Iridologist. And after many
years of independent inquiry, I received my Iridology certification training
from him as well.

During my undergraduate work I attained as many units in women's studies
as I did in my major, psychology. I found this to be an incredibly
insightful course of study. Learning how the process of
socialization has imprisoned us all, women and men alike, was invaluable.
I share this knowledge freely in my process work. I hope to help
others gain freedom from the thick cloud of socialization, which chokes our
culture, to discover their authentic selves and to reach their full
potential. Maintaining health is much
easier and much less work than rebuilding lost health. A hope, I
think, we can
all hold for ourselves and our society is: As people become healthier,
so will their behaviors. The more of us who make health a priority,
the healthier our society and environment will become.

Although I was fortunate that my original study of yoga was a therapeutic
style, in the mid-90's, I attended another therapeutic training. In
the 70's I studied with Mukunda Stiles in a system he called Structural
Yoga. Since them he has written a beautiful book, Structural Yoga
Therapy. He is a knowledgeable and thorough teacher, as his book
demonstrates. This form of Hatha Yoga was perfect for me as it blended
well with the Therapeutic Body Work/Somatic Therapy discussed earlier.

Integrative Yoga Therapy was the system I chose in the 90's. This
program, created by Joseph LePage, was the foundation for my master's degree
program through Sonoma State University with Yoga and Mind Body Therapy as
the focus of study. This program blended with and expanded into my base of
knowledge and experience of the body, mind, emotion, spirit continuum, and
furthered my ability to support a healthful integration of that continuum
for myself and others.

Examples of some of my areas of expertise include: 1) The
Technology of Asana and Its Therapeutic Application, which covers the proper
alignment, purpose, benefits and cautions for each asana. 2) The
Technology of Breath and Its Therapeutic Application, which covers both the
technology of basically being able to breath, and which is the ancient yogic
science of breath control. Breath and prana and their healing
abilities are brought into consciousness with pranayama which then enables
us to benefit from their powers. Just plain proper abdominal breathing
is something a surprisingly few if us are able to do correctly. In
yoga one finds references to the correlation to improper breathing and
disease states. 3) Yoga and Mind Body Health, which correlates the
many yogic technologies with body systems, functions, the aging process and
disease states. 4) Stress and Its Management with the Technologies of
Yoga especially breath and Asana. 5) The Application of Meditation for
Stress and Healing. I have written volumes on these subjects, as
evidenced in my Master's project, entitled, "An Investigative Study of the
Effects of Yoga Therapy."

This concludes, for now, a short synopsis of the highlights of my 30
years of study, but by no means includes all my certification and
non-certification studies. And the process continues.